Winter has come

A cascading, disjointed fall through the mp3s this week. First up is Lord Boyd who sent us something he thoughts we’d like in the form of Ghosts in the Phantom (evidently before the name was changed in the artwork above — where the other ghosts have gone, who knows?). This was subsequently buried beneath an explosion of email and general inbox chaos until being unearthed in a Christmas cleansing ritual. But it’s here now and that’s what matters.

Imagine the blue winter morning of Daft Punk’s Aerodynamic. The beginning bit with the bells heralding the arrival of some lush French house. Imagine the smoke rising from that pretty 19th century landscape, looped. The church bell tightly oscillating at an obscene angle, its toll already fading, as the whole scene stutters.

Then imagine the whole thing ripped asunder as Chicago rises from the ground. Glorious swathes of Footwork surrounded by swarming chrome angles that will eventually rest on the highest spires. Civilization spills out like a flood, colonizing the land with myriad melodies and strange ideas, all competing for control of the song. The cacophony sometimes runs away with itself but the wisdom of the crowds is unquestionable.

Another pre-Christmas attempt at contact came from the ever wonderful Cascine label. This was perhaps best suited to the solitary introspection that goes on in some of the 20JFG household(s) during the festivities.

Ditt Inre’s Din Röst is all sparse Dub, reverb rich and comforting. Sadly not speaking Swedish we can’t comment on what exactly is being discussed but it sounds like a ritual of some sort by well meaning monks. Perhaps welcoming in the winter or exalting in the death of their foes. Which is all monks do.

When the blanket of bass lifts it becomes gloriously spectral. As if this winter the monks were welcoming was the sort that left a blinding blanket of snow upon beautiful white trees. The sort of winter that sees sunlight turning the equally snow blanketed ground to jewels. The monks levitating in pure love for the season and spirits dancing through the trees. That sort of spectral.